You’ve busted your butt and landed an interview! GREAT! Now what?

Each interview deserves its own preparation. Try to give yourself at least a few days before the interview so that you are fully prepared and confident on the day.

How to Talk about Turing

You all have spent 9 months on this Turing journey, so anything you want to share about your own experience is great! But, you might get some questions about Turing more generally - here are some key points that you can reference:

• Turing School is an accredited, non-profit, fully-remote computer programming school, focused solely on helping students develop the technical and professional skills need for a fulfilling career in technology.
• All of Turing’s programs are assessment-based; students continually prove their understanding through assessments.
• Though not always on offer, Launch is a program that teaches Web Development in C#/.NET with a focus on backend development.
  • Our curriculum is open source and can be shared with anyone!
  • Launch students work on a combination of individual and group projects throughout the program.
  • The curriculum and projects are designed for career-starters to give a broad understanding of web-development.
  • Launch is centered on Professional Development, students learn and practice topics including: Identifying Unproductive Struggle, Asking Good Questions, and Giving/Receiving Feedback.
  • Students are expected to practice real-world developer skills like working on a team, and jumping into a new code-base.

School: Turing School
Program: Backend Development in C#/.Net
Grad Date: Jan 2024

Prepping for an Interview - A Checklist!

Clarify Expecations

Make sure you know what kind of interview you are walking in to! Reach out the recruiter or the person you are interviewing with to determine if this is a:

• culture-fit interview
• onsite tech challenge
• take-home challenge

Review the Job Description

It might have been a while since you really read through the job description. Make sure you do that before the interview so that you can:

• prep for the correct tech stack
• highlight your relevant skill and experience

Research the Company

Before the interview, you will want to have a good understanding of the company as a whole. You should know:

• what products they offer
• recent news about the company
• the mission, values and culture of the company

This may (probably will) require you to reach out to folks at the company - a good opportunity for coffee chats!

Practice Your Answers

We have been doing this generally during Mod6, but you should practice answering questions that you might encounter that are more specific to the company/role. The best way to practice an interview is to have someone else ask you questions. Reach out to your cohort-mates to schedule mock interviews!

Some things to think about when asking for mock interviews:

• You can send the questions that you want to be asked - these should be specific to the tech stack or company culture for this role.
• Treat this as a real interview - practice it as you will complete it (dress appropriately, gracefully exit, etc…)

Dress Appropriately

Dress Yourself

Make sure you dress appropriately for the interview, taking into account the company’s culture and dress code. It’s always better to err on the side of dressing too professionally, rather than too casually.

It is always ok to ask the interviewer what the company dress code is!

Dress Your Space (Remote Interview)

If you are interviewing remotely - make sure your space is set up appropriately.

• Clean up any visible messes in your background.
• Make sure everything in your background reflects what you want the interviewer to see.
• Use a zoom background! If you’re not sure of the company culture, or are unable to put yourself into a good environment for the interview, use a zoom background.

Arrive Early

You never know what might come up on the day of the interview, so plan to arrive 10-15 minutes early to account for traffic/parking/check-in. Even if you are interviewing remotely, you should click on the join link EARLY; you never know when zoom might need to update!

Bring Supplies

If you are interviewing in person, make sure to bring:

• Note-taking supplies
• Fully charged computer
• A few copies of your resume

If you are interviewing remotely, make sure you have handy:

• A copy of your resume
• note-taking supplies
• Projects that you want to highlight pulled up and ready to highlight!